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CS71 
Colonial families of America 

BY ELEANOR LEXINGTON 

Seven volumes, 12mo., cloth; each volume illus- 
trated by a frontisj)iece and forty or more Coats-of- 
Arms. 

Each volume contains historical sketches of forty 
American families, each sketch illustrated by at least 
one Coat-of-Arms, and occasionally by two. The 
main points covered in these family sketches are: 
(1) the origin of the family surname; (2) some ac- 
count of the early history of the family in Europe; 
(3) the different American families of the same name, 
with accounts of the immigrant-founders and of some 
of their descendants; (4) members of the family who 
have figured prominently in Colonial times; (5) Rev- 
olutionary soldiers; and (6) Coats-of-Arms. 

Since the two hundred and eighty families treated 
in this series of seven volumes bear names which are 
widespread (for example, the sixty "common names of 
the world," as enumerated by Lower, are all included 
in the list), there are few Americans of Colonial stock 
who will not discover, as they trace out their lines of 
descent, that at least ten or twenty of their ancestral 
families have been included in these books. 

The volumes are sold singly or in sets. Price, per 
volume, $2.00; carriage, 10 cents. Price, per set of 
seven volumes, $10; carriage, 70 cents. The sketch 
of each family, printed by itself, with Coat-of-Arms, 
and bound in paper cover, $1.00; two copies, $1.50; 
three copies, $2.00; five copies, $3.00; ten copies, 
$5.00; twenty-five copies, $10.00. 

Any purchaser of the sketch of a single family for 
$1.00 may purchase the volume containing this sketch 
by the payment of $1.00 additional, plus the cost of 
carriage; or may purchase the set for $9.00, plus the 
cost of carriage. 

The families treated in the several volumes of the 
series will be found listed on the inside back cover. 



LOOMIS FAMILY 



1 





CoomI 



LOOMIS FAMILY 

N"ame Found Throughout the World — Theories 
Regarding Origin of Name — Poets, Artists, 
Professional Men and One Martyr — Family 
Records in British Museum and American 
Historical Societies 

Joseph Loomis, a woolen draper of Braintree, Essex 
County, England, with five sons and three daughters, 
sought a home in the New World in 1638. They came 
over in the ship Susan and Ellen, and settled in Wind- 
sor, Conn., the following year. The record of his first 
years in the colony is preserved by the Historical So- 
ciety of Connecticut. 

He died, 1658, aged about seventy years. His land 
at Windsor was upon what was called "the Island." 
The place is still owned by descendants and is believed 
to be the oldest homestead now standing in the United 
States. Over one and one-half million dollars have 
been left by Joseph's lineal descendants, of the last 
few generations, to convert the estate into an educa- 
tional institute for boys and girls. 

Edward Lomas, another pilgrim, settled in Ipswich, 
Mass., in 1648. He was born in London about 1606. 
He had six children. His descendants, found in many 
States, vary the orthography of the name, although 
Lummis is the usual form. Some write themselves 
down Loomis, others, without much rhyme or reason, 
it would seem, are Lamos. The descendants of Joseph 
are mostly known as Loomis. He and his sons, doubt- 
less thinking "variety the spice of life," used a num- 
ber of forms, ringing the changes on Looms, Loomes, 
Loomas, Lomis, Loomax, Lumax, and Lomys. The 
will of Deacon John, son of Joseph, dated August 27, 
1688, is signed Loomys. His is one of the oldest monu- 
ments in the Windsor Cemetery. He was a representa- 
tive to the Legislature for many years. The names 
of Joseph's five sons are mentioned prominently in old 

5 



6 COLONIAL FAMILIES OF AMERICA 

records of both Windsor and Hartford, as "selectmen, 
jurors and troopers." 

Of Edward's four sons, one, also named Edward, 
settled in New Jersey. Lummus and Lomaks are speci- 
mens of the way they thought their names should be 
written upon occasions. 

True to their coat-armor, which symbolizes^ among 
other things, military strength, we find the Loomis 
family have their war record. 

In Great Britain there was James Lumax, lieuten- 
ant-general. To the home of their adoption they proved 
loyal. Joseph, a descendant of Joseph the first, was 
in the Continental Army of the Revolution ; also Benja- 
min of Windsor, whose wife was Chloe, daughter of 
Josiah Brown, a Revolutionary soldier; Jonathan, of 
Vermont, was a corporal, who played his part manfully, 
and Gustavus, of Vermont, was in the War of 1812. 
Nor must we forget Benaiah, a Revolutionary soldier. 
Before the third decade of the nineteenth century 
ten of the name had been graduated from college. The 
law seems to have been a favorite profession. Ar- 
phaxed Loomis, born in Winchester, Conn., in 1798, was 
a judge, an able speaker and a writer. Dwight Loomis, 
also from the land of steady habits, was another judge. 
James was Mayor and (Connecticut State) Senator. 
Osbert was an artist of renown. Elias Loomis was 
the scientific man of the family. He was born in 
Connecticut in 1811. A graduate and professor of 
Yale College, he wrote many valuable text books, and 
was the first American to see Halley's comet on its 
return in 1835. 

One of the poets of the family was Harvey Worthing- 
ton Loomis, who wrote "The Flag Goes By." 

"Hats off! 

Along the street there comes 

A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, 

A flash of color beneath the sky. 
Hats off, 

The flag is passing by!" 



LOOMIS FAMILY 7 

It is not easy to believe that a name of such modest 
proportions as Loomis, started out as Lumhalghes. That 
such is a fact has been proved to the satisfaction of 
many members of the Loomis family. 

They trace the name to Oliverus de Lumhalghes, who 
held lands in Lancaster County, England, in 1435. The 
name also appears as "del Lumhalghe," in records of 
the time of Henry VI. Eadus del Lumhalghes was a 
landowner in Bury, Lancaster, about the middle of 
the fifteenth century. The supposition is that this 
name, which looks so ponderous, was pronounced in 
two syllables; "h" is only an aspirate and the final "e" 
is silent. This gives a word Lumalg or Lumalgs, and 
it is the easiest thing in the world to pronounce this 
Loomis, is it not ? Perhaps not at the first attempt, for 
there are other variants of the name in old records — 
Lomax, Lomas, Lommes, Lommas and Lomatz being 
examples. 

For the benefit of the skeptic, who rejects this the- 
ory of the origin of the name, another one is given 
which seems more plausible. Loma is a Spanish word 
meaning a little hill, the plural being lomas. The first 
of the Lomas family was one who lived in Spain, and 
on or near a loma. In support of this theory it may 
be said that the name, variously spelled, is common 
in Spain, and also in Italy. Lomas was a Spanish 
poet of the sixteenth century. Lomazzo was an Italian 
painter of the same century. He took his name from 
the village of Lomazzo, near Lake Como. He was sum- 
moned to Florence by Cosmo de Medicis, who made 
him guardian of a gallery of 4,000 paintings. Lomazzi 
is another Italian form of the name. One of the gov- 
ernors of the province of Saragossa was Eduardo de la 
Lomas. The name in France is Lomas; in Germany, 
Lommatsch. 

The advocates of the theory of a Spanish origin of 
the name say it can be traced to the year 1400, to one 
Loma, and that his descendants went to Italy and to 
England. The name has always been prominent in 



8 COLONIAL FAMILIES OF AMEEICA 

England. In the Manchester records of 1497 a Lawrens 
Lomatz is mentioned. The arms of Lawrent Lomax, 
of Eye, Suffolk County, are recorded in a Visitation 
which has a place in the British Museum. The pedi- 
gree of Joshua Lomax, who died in 1685, is found in 
Pedigrees of Hertfordshire. He was the owner of a 
manor. The family has its martyr, in the person of 
John Lomas, burned at Canterbury for heresy, its mem- 
bers of Parliament, and its graduates of Oxford and 
Eton. 

Forms of the name have been favorites for geo- 
graphical nomenclature. For example, Lomiswyl, or 
Lomisville, is the name of a village in Switzerland; in 
Saxony there is a town called Lommatsch; in Africa 
we find Loma Hill; in the Argentine Eepublic, Lomas, 
and Point Loma at San Diego, California. 

The illustrated arms are : Argent, between two palets, 
gules, three fleur-de-lis in pale, sable, a chief, azure. 

Crest: On a chapeau, a pelican vulning herself, 
proper. 

Motto: Ne cede malis — "Yield not to adversity." 

This coat-armor was used by Joseph, the Windsor 
forefather, who spelled his name indifferently, Loomis 
or Lomas. 

Regarding the symbolism, palet, a diminutive of the 
pale, has the same meaning as pale, namely, military 
strength and fortitude, and was given to those who 
had impaled or otherwise defended cities, or who had 
supported the government of their sovereigns, "by stand- 
ing up uprightly for prince and country." Fleur-de-lis 
were often granted to those who had taken part in the 
French wars. The pelican signifies devoted and self-sac- 
rificing charity. The pelican, feeding her young, 
adorned the altars of many Egyptian temples, and was 
represented as vulning or wounding herself with her 
beak, or "in her piety," that is, surrounded by her 
young, whom she was feeding. The pelican is the de- 
vice of the inner Temple, London. 





COLONIAL 


FAR^ILlEg 
VOLUME 


OP AMERICA 
I. 


• 


Bacon 


Cary 


Freeman 


Merritt 


Bewail 


Bailey- 


Conway 


Goodridge 


Miner 


Smith 


Baldwin 


Dickinson 


Griffith 


Montgomery 


Todd 


Ball 


Dubois 


Hawley 


Osgood 


Wallace 


Bancroft 


Edwards 


Horton 


Phillips 


Wendell 


Bradford 


Field 


-Loomis 


Read 


Wilson 


Brooks 


Fisher 


Manning 


Roopevelt 


Winslow 


Brown 


Fox 


. Martin 
VOLUME 


Savage 
IL 


Wright 


Adams 


Cooper 


Hayes 


Page 


Taylor 


Anderson 


Daniel 


Hubbard 


Parker 


Tracy 


Ballon 


Draper 


Jennings 


Perkins 


Walker 


Booth 


Eliot 


Jones 


Putnam 


Walworth 


Briggs 


Fairbanks 


Lapham 


Rawson 


Washington 


Cabell 


French 


Morgan 


Roberts 


Welles 


Clapp 


Gilbert 


Neale 


Robinson 


Wheeler 


Clendenin 


Hatch 


Neville 
VOLUME 


Sinclair 
III. 


Woodhouse 


Alexander 


Cooke 


Goode 


Knox 


Sharp 


Barker 


Cushman 


Graham 


Lawson 


Stevens 


Barrington 


Davis 


Hart 


Maxwell 


St. John 


Beardsley 


Downing 


Hill 


Osborne 


Thomas 


Branch 


Eaton 


Holmes 


Peery 


Tompkins 


Cannon 


Fitzhugh 


Howe 


Rockwell 


Valentine 


Chapman 


Franklin 


Jenkins 


Rogers 


Williams 


Child 


Clifford 


King 
VOLUME 


Saunders 
IV. 


Young 


Barton 


Courtenay 


Hammond 


Luce 


Ross 


Bass 


Cox 


Harris 


Mann 


Shannon 


Bates 


Fletcher 


Heiskell 


Marshall 


Stark 


Bird 


Godfrey 


Henderson 


McDonald 


Thompson 


Blake 


Grant 


Hoskins 


More 


Tuttle 


Chase 


Graves 


Ives 


Morrison 


Wade 


Clark 


Green 


Jackson 


Pope 


Wetmore 


Cole 


Hall 


Knight 
VOLUME 


Preston 
V. 


Wood 


Abell 


Goodwin 


Kendall 


Morris 


Proctor 


Barnes 


Gray 


Lamb 


Morse 


Richardson 


Bassett 


Hamer 


Landen 


Moultrie 


Ridley 


Bennett 


Hamilton 


Langford 


Newhouse 


Russell 


Carter 


Hamlin 


Lee 


Newport 


Scott 


Digges 


Hull 


McCormick 


Oakes 


Staples 


Fay 


Hume 


Merryman 


Parsons 


Tilton 


Fuller 


Kearns 


Mitchell 
VOLUME 


Pratt 

yi. 


Watson 


Austin 


Cathcart 


Gardiner 


Marsh 


Shaw 


Bernard 


Christian 


Hoyt 


McAllister 


Simpson 


Bliss 


Crane 


Hunt 


Meade 


Sprague 


Borden 


Curtis 


Jessup 


Odell 


Turner 


Breeden 


Douglas 


Lamprey 


Pease 


Ward 


Brodie 


Dudley 


Lawrence 


Reynolds 


Webster 


Butler 


Fleming 


Lewis 


Richards 


White 


Campbell 


Foster 


Madison 
VOLUME 


Ryan 
VII. 


Whitney 


Allen 


Carpenter 


Flournoy 


Law 


Porter 


Andrews 


Chambers 


Fowler 


Lloyd 


Price 


Anthony 


Gumming 


Hopkins 


Lucas 


Sherman 


Baker 


Cunningham 


Hughes 


Mason 


Stone 


Bartholomew 


Davies 


Humphrey 


Moore 


Tait 


Belcher 


Drake 


James 


Morton 


Warren 


Benton 


Ely 


Johnson 


Palmer 


Witherspoon 


Boone 


Evans 


Lano 


PiercQ 


fuiiie(Ewell) 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




021 549 736 7 



ANCESTRY TRACED 

HERALDIC RESEARCH 

GENEALOGIES PRINTED 

AND PUBLISHED 

COATS OF ARMS EMBLAZONED 

FRANK ALLABEN 
GENEALOGICAL COMPANY 

Three West Forty-Second Street 
New York 



Persons interested in families which might appropriately he in- 
cluded in future volumes of Colonial Families of America are in- 
vited to correspond ivith the Publishers. 



I 



